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I worked in Tokyo for a few months and only ever ate Japanese food. There are some surprisingly cheap lunchtime places where you sit on a bar stool at a counter. At night, the Shinjuku, Roppongi and Shibuya districts are good fun. Tokyo is massive. The Tokyo metro system can seem overwhelming when you first arrive. You should definitely take the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto, which is a classic traditional town with beautiful old buildings. I wouldn't really describe Japan as a beach resort sort of country.
And there are some even more beautiful towns, like Thula and Hababah, in the mountains around it. Real hidden gems.
Did you chew the khat? It always gave me a sore throat, but you had to share it in order to be sociable with the locals, often at the top of those medieval tower blocks.
Since 2000, they have had 27 and we have had 29. So the average tenure at both clubs is less than a year. Both are good places for managers who want a quick payoff, without ever having to worry about trying to win anything.
Did anybody else watch the film Io Capitano on Film 4 last night? It's the best film I've seen this year and it certainly gives you a different perspective on illegal immigration. It's still available to watch:
1. Thimphu - 'Shangri-la'; the happiest place in the world
2. Jeju City - a hidden paradise
3. Gondar - fascinating place with great history and lovely people
Big cities
1. Sana'a - the most beautiful architecture of any capital city in the world
2. Pittsburgh - surprisingly beautiful and interesting
3. Montevideo - I know all of the big cities in Latin America and places like Buenos Aires are great, but this one is less frenetic and tends to get overlooked even though it's got a lot going for it.
We've had 7 different managers under Sport Republic already. I doubt that an 8th one would be any better.
Sport Republic's recruitment strategy is the root cause of our problems. They have little interest in building a Championship winning team. Their priority is buying and selling young players.
Since Liverpool got promoted, more than 60 years ago, they've never finished outside the top 8. If they had a bottom half finish, their fans would go into absolute meltdown.
Until you compare it with the better squads in the division, like Leicester's.
What we have is a uniformly average squad from which you could get 2 teams capable of scraping a draw with other lower mid-table Championship teams, when what we really need is a standout first team, who can thrash the average teams in the division, with a few back-up players to cover for injuries.
Sport Republic's recruitment strategy is fundamentally flawed.
The most recent season you mention is 2009-10, which was 16 years ago. As I said, this is "the worst Saints squad I've seen for years".
Anyway, I had a look at our 2009-10 squad and it was better than our current one. Back then we had Lambert, Fonte, Schneiderlin, Lallana and Michail Antonio. Oxlade-Chamberlain was also in the squad. but only made a couple of appearances. If only we had players as good as that now.
5. They're trying to sound like people from Nottingham.
("Ducas" (or Dux) was a Latin term, adopted into Anglo-Saxon England, meaning "leader" and it was also a form of respect, similar to governor. It is the etymological root of the modern English word "Duke" and is preserved in the vernacular term of endearment "duck" used in the East Midlands, as in the greeting "Ay up me duck".)
So, basically, it's like the use of "gov" in London.
What's the point if you don't sack Johannes Spors first? Do you really think Spors will appoint a better manager? Experience has taught us it would just be another case of out of the frying pan into the fire. As for our new Head of Scouting, Tim Lederer from Germany, appointed by Spors in June, his first signing from Germany was Damion Downs. What sort of manager do you think those 2 are going to come up with?
We bought players who are Championship standard : not players who are good enough to win it or even get promoted from it. So, they were never going to improve us, as we already had players who knew the higher echelons of the Championship and even the Premier League.
Where did Middlesbrough finish with Azaz? Lower than in the season before he joined them. George Long wasn't even good enough for an average Norwich team.
As for the ones from overseas, Damion Downs was the 18th highest goalscorer in the German second division. We could surely have afforded one of the players who scored more goals than him; perhaps even the top goalscorer.
Yes, it's certainly not the same as it used to be. The questions about accepting various categories of cookies come up every time. Before, once you'd stated your preferences, you didn't have to keep on doing it again every day. You're right: it is getting annoying.
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